Get Ready

There can’t be many bands who could wait eight years between albums and not be greeted without a whiff of cynicism. Unlike many of their contemporaries, however, New Order don’t ‘do’ crisis. And if ever there was the sound of a band at ease with themselves, Get Ready is it.

‘Crystal’ couldn’t be a more apt calling card for the album which, whether by accident or design (Gillian Gilbert found herself absent for most of the recording due to family commitments) represents the band’s most bass, drums and guitar orientated record since the early ’80s. Those who found their way into the band through their club friendly endeavours may be more than a little shocked – there isn’t much here that wouldn’t clear an Ibiza dance floor in five seconds flat – but in its place is a wonderfully warm, human feeling.

The mood is optimistic and upbeat throughout, ‘Close Range’ is so relentlessly chipper that it makes Atomic Kitten sound, well not quite like Joy Division but you get the picture. The highlights come thick and fast – new semi-member Billy Corgan’s vocal on ‘Turn My Way’ suddenly making sense of the last Smashing Pumpkins albums; the pounding punk of ‘Primitive Notion’, strangely reminiscent of early New Model Army; the massive, swirling ‘Slow Jam’.

Peter Hook’s bass leads from the front as ever, but is more than matched by Stephen Morris’ incredible drumming and Bernard Sumner’s shockingly caustic guitar. Closer ‘Run Wild’ turns the whole thing on its head, a gorgeous, largely acoustic excursion into love and friendship. Can there be a more plaintive line this year than “When Jesus comes to take your hand, I won’t let go”? Meanwhile, who’d have thought that the band’s first album of the new century would close with Sumner gently intoning, “Good times around the corner”? If, as we are bound to ask, this is to be New Order’s parting shot, they couldn’t have come closer to perfection.